How do you get a perfect image ratio?
#1
What I'd like to get is

Perfect, unstretched 16:9 PS2 image ratio on my 16:10 monitor, upscaled as high as possible.

I basically want pcsx2 to pillarbox my monitor down to 16:9, and for that pillarboxed space to function like a real 16:9 TV+PS2. I also want to properly scale it up as high as possible within that area.

The hardware I'm running is
Intel e8400
4GB Ram
1GB Radeon HD 5770
22' 1680x1050 Acer LCD monitor

I'm a bit clumsy with figuring out how to do this, and there are a few of the things I'm unsure of.
  • Since I have a 16:10 screen, under GS Windows settings do I pick "Fit to Window/Screen" or "Widescreen (16:9)"? (Does either avoid stretching a 16:9 image on a 16:10 monitor?)
  • For widescreen games to display in their 16:9 version, do you need to run bios and change settings to 16:9?
  • People say scaling is sharpest with exact multiples of the original pixels. If that's the case, what's the highest scaling or internal res that properly fits that space?.






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#2
it's a driver function, not for PCSX2.

In the "Config" -> "Video (GS)" -> "Window settings" you can set the screen resolution and the aspect ratio on three options:
4:3, 16:9 and stretched to fit screen.

Maybe it is what you want, I'm not sure to have understood the problem exactly.

P.S. Notice it's not the same as the internal resolution defined in the GS plugin.

About the BIOS, no, you don't need to change anything there, PC uses a totally different video output to use PS2 BIOS for it (Not entirely sure about this but works for me to change the aspect ratio without messing with the BIOS).
Imagination is where we are truly real
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#3
Well basically, I just want to get the highest scaled, most perfect-ps2-ratio image I can on my 1680 x 1050 monitor.

I'd like to know what settings and numbers to put under the following things, to achieve that.

-GS Window > Aspect Ratio:
(Does "Fit to Window/Screen" autodetect a 1680x1050 desktop resolution and correct the ratio or does it stretch a 16:9 image onto my 16:10 monitor?)
-For the highest quality image upscale possible on a 1680x1050 monitor, what do I set in GSDX10?
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#4
My advice is to use 1080x1080 for the internal resolution in the GSDX plugin...

Still it's strange you calling it GSDX10, it was integrated long ago, what are your emu and plugin versions?
Imagination is where we are truly real
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#5
Well, I'm running 0.9.7.3876 from October 5 2010, with the plugins that came with it. (GSDX3693) I generally wait for full releases, but I'm willing to try an svn build if there's something a lot newer.

Either way, I'd like to scale my picture as high as possible, and have a PS2 perfect aspect ratio. Are there settings to achieve this?

Thanks for the replies.
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#6
I'm really unsure about what you want, there is no way to change the game aspect ratio other than in the game itself as long as I know. For example, FFXII and Star Ocean allow me to chose it in it's ingame options, most other games do not.

Trying to play a 4:3 as a 16:9 distorts the image, there is no workaround I'm aware to this.

What I pointed in former post allows to keep a widescreen window all the time and still keep the game's aspect ratio, only will be black columns to fill it. The same is valid in full screen.
Imagination is where we are truly real
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#7
If I understand correctly, you want the opposite of black-bars. I.e., the current method is to fill the window such that no image part goes "out of bounds", which leaves thin black bars at the top/bottom of the window if your monitor has 16:10 AR and the image is 16:9. You want to allow a little more zoom such that it fits perfectly vertically, while losing some image info at the sides (goes out of bounds). Am I correct?

First of all, I think it's a generally good suggestion, and I definitely wouldn't mind see it implemented. However, you should take into account that, unlike with a film, it might be less useful (both for you and for others) than you hope, due to the following reasons:

1. The vast majority of the monitors sold today are 16:9 and not 16:10. This is a shame IMO because I think 16:10 is much more useful for a monitor. However, producing only 16:9 screens is cheaper since the same screen can also be used as a TV (for which 16:10 won't do). So 16:10 screen will be pretty rare/expensive as time goes by (we're already there IMO). So for the vast majority of users this is a non-issue.

2. Many games put useful information (score/etc) at the sides/corners of the screen, and this extra little zoom might hurt it pretty bad. I haven't researched the issue, but I guess it will harm at least 50% of the games. I'd say that if more than 50% of the games get hurt by this, then it might not be worth it. Feel free to examine as many games as you can and bring here some more accurate statistics.

However, again, I'll gladly have such feature as an option Smile (I also got a 16:10 monitor, and as an image-fanatic, I feel your pain...)

As for your specific questions:
  • 1. Since I have a 16:10 screen, under GS Windows settings do I pick "Fit to Window/Screen" or "Widescreen (16:9)"? (Does either avoid stretching a 16:9 image on a 16:10 monitor?)
  • 2. For widescreen games to display in their 16:9 version, do you need to run bios and change settings to 16:9?
  • 3. People say scaling is sharpest with exact multiples of the original pixels. If that's the case, what's the highest scaling or internal res that properly fits that space?.

1. Fit-to-window will fill your entire monitor by stretching the image to the full window/screen withOUT regards to any aspect ratio. Wide-screen/16:9 will zoom in as much as possible while keeping the aspect ratio, and without letting any image parts get out of bounds.

2. Usually that's an in-game option.

3. Not the sharpest but rather more compatible than an arbitrary resolution (yet still less compatible than the "native PS2 resolution"). Any multiplier will work as described above, with the higher multipliers looking sharper, but also demanding more of your system. Use the highest you can before your FPS start dropping (x2 - x4 for most modern systems)


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#8
I believe the feature you are asking for is called overscan. AFAIK GSDX doesn't implement overscan and probably never won't. I believe if you hook up your monitor or TV to DVI (or possibly HDMI) output of you gfx card then you can set overscan in Catalyst Control panel (or at least you could a few years ago when I had an ATI Smile )
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#9
(03-04-2011, 08:17 PM)avih Wrote: If I understand correctly, you want the opposite of black-bars. I.e., the current method is to fill the window such that no image part goes "out of bounds", which leaves thin black bars at the top/bottom of the window if your monitor has 16:10 AR and the image is 16:9. You want to allow a little more zoom such that it fits perfectly vertically, while losing some image info at the sides (goes out of bounds). Am I correct?

Thanks for your detailed reply. However, no.

Black bars (pillarboxing) are exactly what I want, so I can get the entire image in exact PS2 ratio. It should black out part of my monitor, creating a perfect 16:9 viewing space like a true widescreen TV. Does the 16:9 mode already detect your desktop resolution and pillarbox you to a perfect ps2 ratio?

Once that is taken care of, there's the scaling question. AFAIK, scaling is only perfect as far as your resolution will fit. E.G. if you have a 1680 x 1050 screen, scaling a 640x480 image 3x to 1920x1440 would just waste 240x390 pixels. Assuming that's true, I'd like to know 2 things.

-With that deadened monitor space, how much resolution are you left gaming in? (1680 x 9xx?)
-Assuming scaling is based on native PS2 resolution, what is native PS2 resolution and how many times does it cleanly fit into the above number?

If anyone knows the answers to these things and can let me know, that would be amazing.
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#10
It was already answered, if the game support it you have widescreen, if not... well...

Take FF12 or Star Ocean for example, they can perform both in 4:3 or 16:9 but whatever the choice, changing it in the screen results on deformed image, in both sense, needing to change it in the game's options, saving and possibly restarting to get the correct aspect ratio.

I know some older PC games got mods and patches allowing that resolution change, but notice in all cases the changes are in the game itself. About the overscan feature I leave the answer to someone else.

It would indeed be a nice feature, hope only it would not be very performance rogue, and there are many more priority issues to bugoff before cosmetic issues can be attacked by the devs... who knows?
Imagination is where we are truly real
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